Josh Lucas did not set out to make work with a decidedly political bent after the 2016 election. But when a riveting script by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon landed in his lap, he scrapped his plan to move to Bali with his son and decamped to Broadway instead.

The work in question, The Parisian Woman, currently in previews and officially opening at the Hudson Theatre on Nov. 30, finds Lucas co-starring opposite the electric Uma Thurman, making her Broadway debut as a whip-smart socialite with influence to wield and more than a few suitors vying for her affection. Set in present-day D.C.—Trumpian tweetstorms and all—Willimon’s play examines the gray area between truth and its opposite among a small-yet-mighty cast of characters, whose various motivations include sex, power, political affiliation, and, more often than not, all of the above.

Lucas is balancing the play with another project he’s equally passionate about: Taylor Sheridan’s forthcoming family drama, Yellowstone, premiering in January. When the actor spoke to V.F., he had plans to leave the theater following a Sunday matinee, fly to Montana, shoot all day Monday, and return in time to perform on stage Tuesday night. For Lucas, the hustle is worth it—even when it means throwing himself into “the belly of the beast.”

Vanity Fair: How familiar were you, if at all, with the play that inspired The Parisian Woman, Henry Becque’s La Parisienne?

Josh Lucas: Literally, it was not on my radar in any way. One of the surprising factors was what an influence [Becque] was to people like Ibsen and Beckett and all these people who reference him. Not that I consider myself some theater aficionado or anything, but I’d never even heard of him, and I think a lot of us feel the same way. But there is a tremendous connection between Beau’s play and the way that he was using humor and sex and even slightly breaking the fourth wall and this drawing room-bedroom political commentary. Beau has finely walked this tightrope to try and connect the dots to that play, that period, and that style with this production.

And I read that the play was pretty controversial for its time, so you have this parallel of pushing boundaries.

The one huge difference is that it’s wildly comedic. I mean, the core of [Beau’s] play is very much a comedy. That’s been the great joy of putting it on, to see the explosive laughter surrounding the production.

So it’s set amidst a contemporary backdrop, where Trump is in office. But would you say it’s specifically about politics?

Not at all. I think it’s about relationships. I think it’s about love. It’s about the boundaries of relationships and contemplating different kinds of relationships: open relationships, open marriages. Really, the play is about, particularly for Uma’s character, a desire for passion, and a desire for meaning—everyone’s struggling with that. The play just happens to take place in the soft corridors of power in Washington. And because it’s set in the present, I’ve just come from a meeting with [General] Kelly—all that stuff is what sets it in the Trump element of it all. But that element is quite secondary.

Uma makes her Broadway debut in this play. Across her career, she has refused to be typecast, even when playing “the wife” or “the girlfriend.” What was it like to work alongside someone so formidable?

There are times where I would describe working with her on stage, or even in rehearsal, as working with a jaguar. There’s an element of feline power and unpredictability and extreme intelligence. She’s almost feral at times. It’s so extraordinary to work opposite her. She truly has become one of the most important people I’ve ever worked with in my whole career. There’s extreme chemistry that the whole cast has together, but particularly with her. She brought a fearlessness, which is incredibly difficult and rare to do for a film actress making her Broadway debut. And during an incredible period of her life, with the extracurricular stuff that’s being thrust on her all of a sudden . . . [Thurman has starred in several films produced by Harvey Weinstein, though she has so far declined to comment extensively about the allegations against the producer.]

In terms of the shifts we’re seeing in the entertainment industry, among others?

Exactly. And with the video she did during the press conference that became sort of viral, and how, in a sense, she became a silent spokesperson and was tremendously powerful. This would’ve been, for many people, a totally distracting thing to go through. But in her case, she just buckled down and focused entirely on the play. It’s been amazing to watch. I . . . am totally amazed and invested in my experience with her every day.

By Matthew Murphy.

The Parisian Woman debuts at a moment when power and gender dynamics are changing, as are standards of behavior. Has this environment informed your relationship to the work?

Well, in this case, not at all. We do have, thankfully, a very female-dominated production of extraordinary women—really dignified, soulful women who have contemplated and dealt with some of these issues throughout their whole careers, to some extent or another. Bluntly, it has not had any impact on this production at all because we’re all separate from it. I mean, we all have our own knowledge of it; we all have our own experiences with it. But the production itself has really maintained a pretty extreme focus outside of it.

After Trump’s election, did you feel a sense of responsibility or urgency as far as choosing projects? Did you feel galvanized?

Well, bluntly and honestly—and I haven’t spoken a lot about that—I was so disturbed that my ex-wife, myself, and my five-year-old son made the choice to move to Bali, because of an extraordinary school called the Green School in Bali. I was so concerned and distraught about what I saw happening. I think it’s been as bad or worse than I feared.

We enrolled in this school, we rented a home in Bali, we put my home up for rent in New York, and then the play came along. The play then was, to me, an obvious opportunity to actually go in the exact opposite direction—to put yourself in the center of Times Square, in the center of Broadway, in the center of New York. To put yourself in the belly of the beast to make a remarkable piece of timely social commentary, which is done with tremendous humor. This is the exact opposite of Michael Moore’s show, in my mind.

In the play, we’ve had many conservatives who have come to see it on their own and really, really enjoyed it. And that’s important to me and to us. At the same time, it puts out some of the concepts and problems and things that are going on right now, with Trump and within the political world, in a very humorous way. It’s so prescient; it’s so of the moment. And by no means is it liberals yelling at liberals.

When you’re not rehearsing or performing, how intensely are you keeping up with the rapid-fire news cycle?

More than I would like to. But the reality is, right now we’re in rehearsal, so all of us have this extraordinary distraction. And the truth of the matter is, I don’t think Beau will be reworking or re-writing [the play] every week. We’ve had to change—when I first started working on this play, it was Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, and now it’s General Kelly. I think we’re trying to pull some of that stuff out of it so it isn’t so much of the day but of the moment.

I found them everywhere. I had done something similar with Obama, where I wore different pro-Obama T-shirts every day for hundreds of days, and I have this really wonderful collection that I can’t wait to give my son. [Then] I did this thing with Trump. But bluntly, that’s why I quit Twitter. I received these horrible death threats, not only against myself, but against my little son. And I was like, “That’s it. I’m done. I’m not gonna do this anymore.”

How did that experience affect your approach to political activism as a public person?

I felt like my contribution to political discourse was way less important, and I felt like all celebrities’ impact was less powerful and less important than anyone wanted to admit. And if anything, it somewhat backfired, truthfully. So I happily went silent and happily focused on raising my son, and hoping to help bring up a kid who was very much the opposite of what I see going on right now. It wasn’t out of being scared; I actually felt that all celebrity involvement backfired. But that’s just my experience. I have tremendous respect for people like Mark Ruffalo, people who are really putting themselves out there.

Back to the play: what do you think The Parisian Woman adds to the current Broadway slate?

I think it’s a thriller, a roller-coaster comedy, and I really don’t know anything like it. There’s Shakespeare in the Park using the world of Trump, which has caused controversy and problems. I actually don’t think our play is at all controversial. I’m from the South, and I know Republicans from the South who have come to see the play who genuinely walked away from it saying, “That was honest and fun.” I don’t know if that’d be totally true if someone was a heavy Trump supporter, but at the same time, Blair [Brown’s] character presents a very respectful Republican point of view. So I don’t know of anything on Broadway that’s doing that right now.

Shows like Hamilton have gotten caught up in politics when someone like Mike Pence attends and causes a stir.

Well look, I truly hope someone like Pence comes to this play. And I hope that they come and they say, “Huh. Interesting.” [Laughs] That’s what I hope.

We’ll see—he might just read this piece and you’ll see him in the front row.

I think he would probably have more of a problem with the sexuality of the play than he would with the politics.

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